Sylvie's Tips - Muay Thai Tips, Techniques & Helps from Thailand

This is a new feature I’m going to try my hand at. I’ve got a lot on my plate out here, but it feels like it would be a shame to waste some of the small technical Muay Thai know-hows I’ve run into, so I’m going to try to stop and film them in short segments when I come across a new one. Sometimes it will be something I’ve discovered in my own struggle to synthesize all the amazing technique that is surrounding me, but mostly I hope it is short pieces of instructions or help from those teaching me. I’m a little shy with the camera, and it always feels like an imposition to ask a Kru to stop and be filmed – but I’ll get over it. The cost of shyness is too high in this case. There is a wealth of technique in Thailand – even in a single gym there is a great variety of fighting styles and approaches. So this is my attempt to document and share some of it.

I struggled somewhat over what to call these segments because they’re not always my tips and for the most part I’m looking for the instructors themselves to demo and teach the techniques – I’m just the collector and the vector of the information. I am by no means an expert, but this video series isn’t about experts. Thailand is filled with non-expert experts. The lowliest guy at the gym, who you may never pay attention to and who has no social standing may be an absolute treasure trove of knowledge. (Likewise, the dude who won’t leave you alone in trying to advise you on everything might be an idiot.) So here’s to passing on whatever I can to more viewers, which was the original purpose of my YouTube channel when I first began filming Master K.

I’ll be putting the videos in a YouTube Playlist for convenience (below), and they’ll be published here on 8limbs.us as they are created (you can subscribe below!), but to start out this post will have a few. It’s a feature in the process of its own evolution. I’ve also added a few older videos to the Playlist that fit within the context of this feature, and some unpublished videos of the past.

The Sylvie’s Tips Playlist

A Few Recently Filmed Entries:

I talk about the importance of hip placement in Thai Clinch

Bank Petchrungruang shows the palm-to-palm hand position in a Muay Thai clinch squeeze – this improved my clinch a great deal.

Kru Hart Petchrungruang demonstrates the art of push in the Thai Clinch – this basic shoving has really started to help my inside game. It works both defensively and offensively.

Adding a little padding to your Muay Thai wrap

I show how whipping the arm straight down on the kick increases relaxation and speed for me.

And More

For those looking for more detailed instruction and techniques I put together a series of posts with extensive video (whole sessions) when training with Sakmongkol in February of 2014. If you have patience you can read and view them all here: Training with Sakmongkol.

I also tried to sum up what I learned in that visit to Pattaya, a visit that inspired me to move down here, in 15 New Techniques That Will Improve Your Muay Thai

You can support this content: Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu on Patreon

The Author Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu

A 100 lb. (46 kg) female Muay Thai fighter. Originally I trained under Kumron Vaitayanon (Master K) and Kaensak sor. Ploenjit in New Jersey. I then moved to Thailand to train and fight full time in April of 2012, devoting myself to fighting 100 Thai fights, as well as blogging full time. Having surpassed 100, and then 200, becoming the westerner with the most fights in Thailand, in history, my new goal is to fight an impossible 471 times, the historical record for the greatest number of documented professional fights (see western boxer Len Wickwar, circa 1940), and along the way to continue documenting the Muay Thai of Thailand in the Muay Thai Library project: see patreon.com/sylviemuay

1 Comment

bruno bellouin

July 26, 2016 8:20 pm

Tout simplement Merci….;)

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In the video below some of the techniques being worked on: blade of the forearm lock to create leverage turns on the knee, waiting until on one foot small jerks to off balance, instead of continuous pressure moving forward and back to off balance inside thigh trip to turn and trip steering by the inside of the elbows the bounce to hide moves Spreading the Technique of Clinch This is a follow up post on my Passing Some Clinch Knowledge post on my visit to the Pettonpung gym about a month before this, where I showed my lock and a

The Story As To Why Women Are A Danger to Lumpinee Ring Protection

This is about the story that helps explain why Thais believe women should not enter (or even touch) the famed rings of Bangkok. There are actually two stories, one of which I had never heard and which may be an older version. Both stories are about how a female presence weakened the protective magic that surrounds the ring, and that is worn by male fighters, resulting in a night of bloody TKOs. It is part of the lore of modern Muay Thai, as traditional Thai beliefs have come in contact with contemporary views of womanhood. In the west the story

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